Palm Springs!

We made a quick retreat out of Malibu on Friday morning. First, to beat the rain and wind storm that we could see coming in off the ocean. Second, our trip took us right through the center of LA. Nothing like piloting your house through 7 lanes of LA freeway. We got lucky and hit downtown just as morning rush was settling down, about 10:30 am. The worst part about it was the amount of lane changes one has do to stay on your freeway (confusing)

The rest of way to Palm Springs was smooth sailing. We pulled in to our rv resort (they're not called campgrounds down here) and headed into town to check things out. Having lived in Michigan my whole life, I don't know if I'll ever get used to seeing Christmas trees for sale in the middle of the dessert, or lights around palm trees. Here is a pick of downtown Palm Springs at dusk, the lights had just come on.



Since we are on the far eastern end of the Pacific time zone, it get dark early here, 4:15! We grabbed a local guide and headed back to the coach for some dinner and rest. We found out this weekend was 'Tamale Fest' and they were expecting 150 to 250 thousand people; We have to check this out!



All I can say is WOW! It was packed. Even though there was a ton of tamale vendors, lines were anywhere from 10 to 100 deep. We later determined it was the amount of trophies at your booth (the judging was the previous night) that determined how long your lines were. We opted for a sampling of tamales, cheese, chicken, beef and pork. The cheese and beef were the clear winners, but all were good.



We heard rumors of dessert tamales, so we set out through the crowd to search them out. We found Belgian chocolate tamales with raspberry couli(sp?)and carmalized walnuts in them, delicious!

I can only handle so much of crazy, tamale eating throngs of people. So, we headed out. There were some other 'rv resorts' in the area, so we decided to check them out. One had about 1,400 spots, it was the largest 'park' we had ever seen! It had ever amenity imaginable from tennis, golf, hiking/Biking paths, clubhouse, events, dances spas.... The other was a gated, guarded motorcoach facility. Motorcoach, meaning 1/2 million and up bus conversions. For the heck of it we had the sales manager take us on a guided tour of the place. We told him we had a 38' coach, no specifics, I don't know if we would have passed inspection! (no joke, they 'determine' if your 'rig' is good enough to stay there!) Most of the parking pads were privately owned and the owners could deck them out as they saw fit. We saw 'outdoor' kitchens that modeled the best restaurant kitchens. Lots were for sale for anywhere from 80,000 to 250,00, for a cement parking pad! Time to move on!

We are going to have to treat ourselves to one of 'resorts' one day ( the first one, not the gated, guarded one). But, they are pricey, anywhere from 40 to 100/night. We normally try to limit ourselves to $25, but, that has been very difficult to do in the resort towns. Santa Barbara, $50/night. Malibu, $38/night, Palm springs, 40/night. Time to do a little budget adjustment!

Rich